BB gun path of destruction stretches to Bridgewater, Raynham

Shannon Gallagher The Enterprise SGallagher_ENT

Tuesday

Jul 11, 2017 at 9:11 PMJul 12, 2017 at 3:43 PM

Since mid-June, more than two dozen local vehicle owners and homeowners have made reports to police departments in East Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, Whitman, Raynham and Halifax about broken windows that appear to have been hit with a BB gun.

EAST BRIDGEWATER – It was just before 7 a.m. on Thursday when Michael Salvucci stepped outside to move his Jeep Renegade in his Harvard Street driveway so that his partner could leave for work.

Less than three hours later, when Salvucci returned to get something from the car, the rear window had been smashed.

“He didn’t even know until he went out to get something from his car,” Salvucci’s partner Robbie Holland said. “When he shut the door, he heard the glass kind of shatter and fall down.”

Minutes later and less than half a mile down the street, Eric Cardoza was getting ready to leave for the day when he noticed the shattered back windshield on the large Dodge van parked on the side of his Pine Street residence.

He called the police at about 10:30 a.m. to report the damage, and was surprised to learn how many others in the neighborhood had reported similar stories.

“I called the police just in case,” Cardoza said, “and they were like, ‘we’ll send someone out right away,’ because there had already been six or seven other reports in the area.”

By Tuesday, the number of these reported incidents in local towns had sky-rocketed to at least 26.

Since mid-June, more than two dozen local vehicle owners and homeowners have made reports to police departments in East Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, Whitman, Raynham and Halifax about broken windows that appear to have been hit with a BB gun.

Yet, police say they aren’t getting any closer to finding the culprit.

With still no eyewitnesses and unpredictable date, time and locations for each incident, police don’t have many leads to go on.

A BB gun is a gun that uses compressed air to fire tiny metal spherical pellet projectiles. Because the pellets are so small, officers have not recovered any pellets from local incidences. However, in some cases in which windows were not fully shatter, the small bullet mark left behind matches that of a BB gun, police said.

In Whitman and East Bridgewater, the two towns most affected by these events, police plan to pool their resources for the investigation, Whitman Police Deputy Chief Timothy Hanlon said.

The first incidents began to emerge in Whitman, as early as Tuesday, June 27, 2017, when Billy Sims’ Ford truck was struck with a BB gun while it was parked in his Belmont Street driveway overnight, according to police logs.

Billy awoke to see the passenger side front window was totally shattered.

“He had to open the window, roll it down, and let all the pieces fall down onto the ground,” Billy’s wife Karen Sims said.

Since then, the shootings have grown increasingly sporadic, occurring more often and at all hours of the day.

Several buildings were hit with what appears to be BB pellets, in addition to the vehicles.

In West Bridgewater, pastor John McGrath and his wife Jeanne arrived at their storefront Voice of Truth Church to prepare for the usual Sunday morning service on Sunday.

They found the full-length glass windows at the 128 North Main St. location had been struck with four BB pellets.

The pellets were not enough to pierce the glass, McGrath said, but investigators estimated the windows would cost several thousand dollars to replace.

Local police are continuing to investigate the shootings, police said, but they urged residents to remain vigilant and report suspicious activity.

“At this point, our best bet for catching whoever is doing it would be if someone saw them in the act,” Whitman Police Deputy Chief Timothy Hanlon said.

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